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Rin & Serena attend Volks USA’s Showroom Closing Event & Tea Party

This weekend was the final one that the Volks USA Tenshi-no-Sumika would be open to the public before closing it’s doors indefinitely. AlphaZ enjoyed his visit in early February so much that he was determined to go back one last time. On Saturday there was a discount sale, as well as the opportunity to purchase some of the showroom’s display dolls at the “Dollfie Orphanage.” I arrived with our aunt around 10am and we drew numbers out of a box to determine what order we would enter the line – I got #96, and there were about 160 people in line by the time the shop opened. I met Obiwanivan and JoltFiend while we were waiting around for the store to open.

I finally got the Gothic Wing Chair that I have coveted for 3 years! It was the showroom piece and it was discounted 40% – what an amazing deal! That was the only thing I was truly hoping to buy, but then my heart was captured by Super Dollfie Ryo and I adopted him to be cared for by my sister, Machiko. Here is is with big sister Serena on Saturday evening –

Everyone that came by the store received a special surprise gift – mine was this cute doll-sized “I ♥ SD” necklace. It’s 0.925 silver and came in a adorable little Super Dollfie pouch, with a note from Hideyoshi Shigeta, the store manager.

Meanwhile, AlphaZ was across town lining up for a completely different special event! He left the house at 6am to line up at Gallery Nucleus to meet Producer Yoshinori Kitase and Art Director Yusuke Naora at a signing event as well as to purchase an early release of FINAL FANTASY X/X-2 HD Remaster.

He spent hours lining up in the hot sun in order to get his autographed copy of the game @__@” This was around 2pm in the afternoon…

He was actually very lucky – even though he started out the morning being about #120 in line, by the time he got into the gallery he was #197! The volunteers didn’t do anything to prevent people from cutting into the line, and people who had cash were able to jump the line a little bit since credit card transactions took longer. Luckily AlphaZ had cash with him, or his day would have been ruined.

After a day filled with lining up and driving across the city, we went to Sugarfish in Sherman Oaks for dinner with our aunt before heading home.

On Sunday there was a Tea Party event at Volks USA, and there was such a huge interest in it that the store held a lottery the week prior to the event to decide who would get an invitation! I had hoped that PlasticFantastic and TheBobness would also be able to come and we could make a special weekend out of it, but sadly they didn’t win invitations >_<”

When we arrived to the tea party, we drew a random number out of a box – it didn’t make sense to have another lineup draw since there were only 53 people at this event?! It all became clear as we went inside and saw something hidden behind a pink fabric cover… Here is Kuni Shigeta telling us about what is going to happen –

Just like at Dolpa, the Ten-Rai-Jin prize game! Now I understood what the numbers we drew were for! No bingo games though! ^__~”

There was also a little display of prizes to be won – Komame plushies, the Komame head bucket, and maybe some other surprises? (At Dolpa you can win postcards and notebooks @__@” )

I won a “Forever Rose” that was a special Super Dollfie 15th Anniversary item at the last Tokyo Dolpa. I thought it was a silk flower, but it is actually a genuine rose that has been specially treated! It came in a cute little Komame bag.Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

I forgot to take a picture, but this was the person who was #1 in the game, and also won a Forever Rose.

AlphaZ was luckier – he won a Komame cat head bucket!

Nekoconeko also won a Komame head!

But the luckiest of all got to welcome home super tiny Super Dollfie Tenshi dolls! Here is the Rei-Tenshi that Ksusha won –

Obiwanivan, Innocentsaké and myself at the Tea Party event with Saber Lily, Momoko and Serena on our arms.Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

Here I am in a Shigeta sandwich! ^__^” Hideyoshi Shigeta on the left, who is the new general manager of Volks USA and MIKEY (Akita Shigeta) the main artistic designer of Super Dollfie and doll makeup artist.
I made a point to chat with Hide-san and tell him that the Canadian customers are hoping for bigger and better things from Volks USA! Ksusha’s blog has a video of Hide-san’s closing speech.

AlphaZ and I had a very memorable weekend in L.A. and felt very privileged to attend the Tea Party. We didn’t know what to expect – we just wanted to show our support to Volks International to show that there is an active and passionate community in North America – and we also came home with lots of Volks souvenirs!

Photo: VolksUSA Facebook Page

One last picture of AlphaZ and me. We decided to bring Rin and Serena since they had also come with us to Tenshi-no-Sato last autumn and it felt somewhat appropriate for them to come.Photo: Obiwanivan (Ivan Aburto)

– ♥ Archangeli

Omake (Extra):

We were awoken at 6:30am yesterday morning by a 4.7 magnitude earthquake!